Li Mi’an during the Qing dynasty wrote the poem “Half-Half Song” which best illustrates the sublime “half and half” state:

Having seen through half of this transient life,
Half of life is limitless enjoyment.
The months and years with this half have been completely carefree,
Within this half, heaven and earth are spread wide and clear.
A cottage in half town and half countryside,
A field that is halfway between hills and streams;
Half farming, half study, and half at home;
Relations that are half gentry and half common.
Utensils that are half refined and half coarse;
Rooms and courtyards being half elegant and half plain.
Clothing that is half plain and half novel;
Meal courses that are half sumptuous and half austere.
Servants that are half able and half clumsy;
A wife that is half simple and half talented.
Feeling half as a Buddha, and half as a deity;
My name is half hidden and half revealed.
I return half to heaven and earth;
And half I leave to the human world.
Half a consideration for posterity and future times;
Half a thought for how I will meet Yama, the lord of death.
Half tipsy with wine is just right;
Flowers when half open are quite the sight.
Boats with half sail the smoothest;
Horses with reins half-slacked ride the steadiest.
Half too little gives that extra taste;
While half too much is a wearisome burden.
Pleasure and pain have always been mixed half and half,
And those who gain the advantage are only half.

Chan Master Yaoshan once pointed to a pair of trees in the courtyard and asked his disciples, “Would it be better if these trees thrived or withered?”

His disciple Daowu said, “If they were to thrive it would be better.”

His disciple Yunyan said, “If they were to wither it would be better.”

The novice monk Gao said, “Let those that thrive thrive, and let those that wither wither.”

What a good point: “Let those that thrive thrive, and let those that wither wither.” In spring the red flowers and green leaves appear more striking because they are together, while at night the moon and stars both share their radiance. Such natural beauty gives us a powerful sense of the greatness of the universe. As long as we treat each other with respect and acceptance, maintaining a mutual harmony and balance, we will find that this world of “half this” and “half that” is truly wonderful.

In the Chan School of Buddhism, if you ask an old Chan master how he practices, he is likely to say, “Eating and sleeping.”

Now, you may think, “Don’t we eat and sleep too? Are we also practicing well?” But that kind of eating and sleeping does not count. When an ordinary person eats, he picks the lean or chooses the fat, and when an ordinary person sleeps he tosses and turns without sleeping peacefully. When an old Chan master eats, even the vegetable stalks are tasty, and when he sleeps he is comfortable and peaceful. It is not the same.

What is spiritual practice, really? If we take eating as an example, if you can find every meal delicious and tasty, then this is meditative bliss and Dharma joy. If you can sleep comfortably and at ease, that is liberation. Feeling peace in your heart is spiritual practice.

Chan Master Dazhu Huihai once said, “Eat when hungry and sleep when tired.” Being able to sleep soundly without abiding in thought requires that we cultivate good karma. Let us take insight from this laudatory verse in the nineteenth chapter of the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, the “Chapter on Pure Practice:”

If one’s body is free of all negative karma,
And in speech one turns away from the four wrongs,¹
Then the mind will not be entangled in doubts,
And one will be able to sleep peacefully.

If the mind and body can be unperturbed,
Abiding securely in a place of tranquility,
Then one obtains unsurpassed bliss,
And one will be able to sleep peacefully.

If the mind has no clinging attachments,
Keeping far removed for all enmity,
Then be always harmonious and free of struggles
And one will be able to sleep peacefully.

If one does not create negative karma,
The mind always keeping a penitent attitude,
Then trust that wrong will meet its due,
And one will be able to sleep peacefully.

Respectfully care for one’s parents,
Do not harm a single life,
Nor steal the property of others,
Then one will be able to sleep peacefully.

Subdue all the organs of sensation,
Draw near good spiritual friends,
And destroy the hosts of the four Maras,²
Then one will be able to sleep peacefully.

Therefore, we should not bring our frustrations to bed. Any unhappiness that happened today, we should let go of. Do not take them with you when you sleep, and do not carry your anger and resentment into tomorrow. If you want to live a life in which you practice without abiding, then you must not keep your anger overnight.

Meditation means turning off the self that abides in things; it means breaking out of the daily routine of abiding. One no longer clings to delusional thoughts and biased attachments, but brings the mind back to the pure bodhi of the freedom of non-abiding.

There is a saying in the Chan tradition: “Without a meditation breakthrough, do not dwell in the mountains.” We can see that the bodhisattva’s practice depends upon the cultivation of both merit and wisdom. We can only speak of dwelling in a mountain retreat after our minds have had some kind of achievement. But meditative attainment should not lead to arrogance or be used to mislead others and deceive ourselves. Meditation retreats are not an escape from life, nor should they degenerate into a stepping stone for advancement and notoriety. True sitting meditation during retreat must achieve the following:

• It should shut out the thieves of the six sense organs.
• It should forbid the mind from straying to delusional thinking.
• It should correctly contemplate the armies of the three poisons.
• It should purify the karma of body, speech, and mind.

“Sitting meditation” does not just mean superficially sitting quietly on a meditation mat. Sitting meditation is where we can transcend all things, such that the mind is no longer disturbed. Through sitting meditation one can fully understand the mind and see intrinsic nature. By seeing intrinsic nature, one attains emptiness, and emptiness is itself prajna.

Source: Hsing Yun, Four Insights for Finding Fulfillment: A Practical Guide to the Buddha’s Diamond Sutra, Los Angeles: Buddha’s Light Publishing, 2012.

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Footnote:

1. The four kinds of wrong speech: lying, duplicitous speech, harsh speech, and flattery. Ed.
2. These include Mara as the deity who is an adversary of the Buddha, but also encompasses our afflictions, the five aggregates, and the cycle of birth and death. Ed.